Well, we are battening down the hatches around here already. Schools in south Jersey have closed half day tomorrow and Friday in anticipation. We will surely get some powerful winds and high surf. But my real concern is for my brother and sister- in-law who live in Nags Head, NC. They plan to stay and ride it out. "Oh, we'll be fine," he says... He was never the brightest of us three siblings...

Let's not forget our old pal Mike Dutton in Virginia Beach, and doesn't Drew have a place in Ocean City. Our close cousins from Ellicott City do too. Let's all hang in there and keep all in danger in our thoughts and prayers.

Oh boy. My wife is on a project in Orlando, FL. She travels by Amtrak (hates to fly if she has another choice) and she told me yesterday she thinks the train, which gets to Orlando after going through the Carolinas, will be on time today when she is scheduled to come home. I don't think so.

Here in NY, a storm is expected to hit the city and the suburbs; I am expected to be on the road, to the Finger Lakes, with rain all the way, I suppose.

Yup, praying real hard here too. Will go to the beach on Sunday? to see if we have any damage. The good thing is that the house is on the bay side which offers some protection. Already got word that the wind blew the cover off the boat! My sense is that we'll probably fare out better than our southern cousins in the Carolina's and Ole' Virginia.

4pm Message on my machine from the Nags Head (mule head) brother. They have weathered the worst of it now, and are fine. No power and a shed he was building blew down, but no other problems. He did admit it's the worst one he's been through in the twenty years he's lived there. Hope everyone else we care about does as well.

I will be thinking of you all as well. hope everyone stays safe.! We're expecting some pretty high swells here. May have to run down to the beach to watch. It is rather impressive if no one is in danger.

I think Mike Seidel of the Weather Channel deserves at least a raise if not an Emmy for his coverage of the storm. Watching him get blown away was one of the funniest videos I've seen in my life. They've been playing it over and over on the Weather Channel and it is priceless! I spent the evening with some good friends eating chili and drinking some nice wine. Benziger Merlot...I thought it tasted mighty good with the dinner. School is closed tomorrow.

Well, we're all safe but have a tree in our house. A 100'+ tulip poplar slammed into the house, garage side, at about midnight, through the attic and into the garage. Driveway's completely blocked and we're prisoners until light. Too dangerous, at this point, to venture out as branches and trees continue to fall in our wooded community. Reporting at just after 2am just to keep my sanity. Fire dept. responded and said all is well stucturaly, that's a good thing. Power has been out since 6pm yesterday and our power company says over 500,000 are without power...still, thank God Eileen and I are safe.

What a kick in the head. So Sorry Drewski. Glad you and your CB are safe. Tried to call you and couldn't get thru Just tried Mike Dutton and got his answering machination. He musta' fled to higher ground. Will keep calling tillst I gets thru. WW

Sorry about the damage Drew. My mother had her attic damaged by a tree during an ice storm in Nebraska one year. Neighbors were good about checking on her and when power was out for several days they used a four-wheel drive vehicle to take her to a downtown hotel with its own generator. Her ginkgo tree in the backyard was damaged too in that storm.
Winds only got to about 55 mph in Fayetteville and I think we got less than 2" of rain. With Hurricane Floyd which hung around in one place a lot longer we had about 8" of rain.

Sorry to hear about the damage, Drewbeard. Not a welcome addition to any home. Heard this AM that Maryland is included in the disaster declaration and therefore residents are eligible for fed assistance. Hope that program is of at least some help.